I've had the s3 for a little over a month now and I am having trouble when entering my password for voicemail. I will move the phone away from my ear, hit the "show keypad" icon and then when I start to enter my password, the screen flashes on and off and with it doing this - it takes me like 10 or more times of trying to enter my password before I can do it where it accepts it. Anyone else have this trouble? what should I do?

Easiest thing would be to have your phone auto dial your voicemail pin for you. Press menu>settings>phone> voicemail settings>voicemail number and add a comma and your pin, do that it looks like *86,1111#, where 1111 is replaced by your pin.

I am having this same problem! I try to check my voicemail by either pressing the voicemail notification icon or by pressing 1 (or dialing *86). Then when I go to enter my password, I can only get one number entered before the keypad disappears and the screen goes dark. I have been having to check voicemail from my office phone, which is not helpful since I am usually out-of-office when I need to check voicemails.

I have also tried changing my voicemail call settings so that it will auto-dial *86(pause)(pause)**** (that would be my 4-digit password), but that does not work either.

I called Verizon twice about it and they claim they haven't heard of this issue before! The last time I called they made me remove battery and sim card and then put it back in for a reboot. We then tested voicemail/keypad once while the Verizon person was still on the phone (a different phone) and it worked that one time, of course. Then I go to check voicemail again and it doesn't work! I have also had this issue (keypad disappears) during a few other non-voicemail calls that require entering in numeric information during the call. This is a weird issue and I'm upset that my brand new phone has such an obvious glitch.

I was also told that since my phone is still under warranty I could probably get another phone but it would REFURBISHED. That upsets me too. Anyway, if other Galazy s3 users are having this problem, getting a new-used phone to replace mine probably wouldn't resolve the issue.

We need to get you access to the voicemail.
Thanks to demmo86rt for the wonderful tip on how to set up auto entry for the voicemail.
For people who prefer to enter the password manually, try to check Screen timeout settings under menu-->display--Screen timeout and change the value accordingly. Is this the only screen that times out?

I just got the S3 phone and noticed this same problem with password entry to voicemail using the keypad. The keypad disappears when you go over the two little circles to the left of the front facing camera. I can enter my password if I stay far enough away from these two circular sensors. Since I just got the phone yesterday, I haven't had time to figure out what these sensors are for.

So as I hold the phone in my left hand, I can enter my password with my right hand as long as I make a fist and open and extend my index finger to touch the numbers on the key pad. Hope this helps. But...this definitely is a glaring defect. How did this pass quality control??

Those two circles (out at least one of them) are probably the proximity sensor. Normally this completely turns off the screen while in a phone call with the phone to your face to prevent accidental face presses while on the phone. Not sure why it would collapse your keypad, though.

There isn't any reason to cover those sensors, those are the ones that blacks the screen when you place the phone to your face. If you make sure not to cover those and just input the password you should be OK, I haven't had any issues with the screen blacking out like that for me.

Holding it away with my hand in a fist only allows me to type in the numbers, still unable to get to retrieve my voicemail after typing it in. It is like it does not recognize my key pad - going to the verizon store at lunch today and will let everyone know what the deal is.